Ruturaj Gaikwad has been unveiled as the brand new captain of Chennai Tremendous Kings a day earlier than the opening sport of IPL 2024, the place defending champions CSK tackle the visiting Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chepauk. This brings to an finish MS Dhoni’s lengthy stint as captain of CSK – which started within the event’s first season again in 2008 – although he had stepped away from the place in 2022 too, when Ravindra Jadeja was made captain. However Jadeja stepped down after eight matches and Dhoni took again the reins, persevering with in 2023 when CSK received the trophy for the fifth time and drew degree with Mumbai Indians on the prime of the title leaderboard.
That triumph was broadly anticipated to be Dhoni’s IPL farewell – he had retired from worldwide cricket following the 2019 World Cup – however he vowed to return for not less than yet another season if his physique allowed it. Troubled by a knee difficulty proper by the 2023 season, Dhoni underwent surgical procedure days after the ultimate. The 42-year-old joined CSK’s pre-season camp in Chennai earlier this month.
In all, Dhoni captained CSK in 235 of their 249 video games in all competitions, main them to 2 titles within the defunct Champions League T20 to go together with the 5 IPL titles, in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023. Such was CSK’s consistency underneath Dhoni’s management, that the crew completed exterior the highest 4 in simply two seasons – 2020 and 2022 – whereas additionally reaching the ultimate 10 occasions, together with 4 consecutive years, from 2010 to 2013.
He additionally captained Rising Pune Supergiant for 14 video games throughout CSK’s two-year ban from the IPL in 2016 and 2017. In all, he led groups in 226 IPL video games, which places him far forward of Rohit Sharma (158) on the captaincy leaderboard.
The scale of the footwear Gaikwad steps into will be gauged by Dhoni’s win-loss ratio of 1.461 within the IPL, a determine bettered solely by Hardik Pandya (2.444) and Steven Smith (1.470) amongst captains who’ve led groups in 20 or extra matches.
The 27-year-old Gaikwad has been tipped to take over from Dhoni ever since he completed the 2021 IPL season – his second within the competitors – with a chart-topping 635 runs. The Maharashtra batter has since grown into considered one of CSK’s most constant performers, and his run-scoring feats within the IPL have earned him a spot on the fast periphery of India’s first-choice white-ball squads. He has performed 6 ODIs and 19 T20Is to this point.
With 1797 runs from 52 matches at a mean of 39.06 and a strike charge of 135.52, Gaikwad is at present CSK’s seventh-highest run-getter. Among the many first points he’s anticipated to deal with as captain is deciding who he’ll open alongside, together with his common companion Devon Conway dominated out till Could with a thumb damage.
Gaikwad has himself solely simply recovered from a finger damage, and has solely performed one aggressive sport in 2024 – a Ranji Trophy match towards Companies, the place he top-scored with 96 in Maharashtra’s first innings.
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